Morrison Cohen LLP Names Jeff Laska as Co-Chair of Compensation, Benefits & Employment Department
June 14, 2019 – Morrison Cohen LLP announced that Jeff Laska has been elected to become Co-Chair of the firm's Compensation, Benefits & Employment Department with Brian B. Snarr.
Morrison Cohen's Compensation, Benefits & Employment Department represents companies and individuals in virtually all aspects of the employment relationship and in a wide variety of industries. The team provides strategic advice and offer creative, commercial solutions designed to achieve favorable outcomes for our clients.
The Department focuses on the relationship between employer and employee. In this context, our attorneys design and implement incentive compensation plans, negotiate and draft employment, separation and restrictive covenant agreements, establish and maintain employee stock ownership plans (“ESOPs”), negotiate collective bargaining agreements, and provide tax, ERISA, securities, and governance advice relating to matters within our areas of concentration.
We are frequently asked to get involved in the earliest stages of a company's lifecycle, where we will participate in drafting organizational documents, such as operating agreements and partnership agreements; we are regularly called upon to provide advice in connection with corporate transactions, such as mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged buy-outs, financings, and other, similar transactions; and we represent senior executives as well as management teams in the negotiation of their compensation or severance packages in connection with private equity deals, spin-offs, mergers, and other change of control situations.
Our client base encompasses all major industries, including, among others, financial service, consulting, real estate, technology, fashion, and manufacturing companies; from small start-ups to large, mature organizations. On the individual side, our clients include CEOs, COOs, CFOs and other senior executives of public and private companies; investment bankers, portfolio managers, private equity professionals, traders, analysts, and other employees of financial service firms; doctors, lawyers, accountants, and pharmaceutical/biotech industry professionals; partners, members, shareholders and other business owners; and employees of companies in general, all of whom turn to us for our commercial and practical experience, and our problem-solving approach to compensation, benefits and labor matters.
“The Compensation, Benefits & Employment Department provides our clients with commercial and pragmatic advice and perspective with respect to all of their employment-related legal needs,” Morrison Cohen Chairman David Scherl said. “With decades of experience between them as advisers to companies and executives, Jeff and Brian provide our clients with deep knowledge of the commercial and market standards that shape employment arrangements, as well as an understanding of the sensitive, complex, and personal nature of employment relationships.”
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Related Practices
Our Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits Practice represents companies and individuals in virtually all aspects of the employment relationship and in a wide variety of industries. We provide strategic advice and offer creative, commercial solutions designed to achieve favorable outcomes for our clients.
Employees are a company’s most important asset, and our lawyers provide comprehensive advice to a wide variety of companies as to all facets of their compensation and benefits matters. Our abilities allow our clients to attract, retain and incentivize their employees and protect their commercial interests.
Our lawyers bring a sophisticated multi-disciplinary approach to ESOP transactions and compliance. We regularly advise and represent business owners, ESOP fiduciaries, lenders and ESOP companies in the areas of ERISA, tax, corporate finance, commercial law and corporate governance as these relate to ESOPs.
Our lawyers represent a wide range of clients on the ERISA regulatory issues that are associated with investments by U.S. pension plans. These clients may be accepting investments from ERISA investors or engaging in other transactions with ERISA counterparties, or have fiduciary responsibility for managing ERISA plan assets.
Our attorneys represent individuals at all levels of employment in a wide variety of industries. Our national reputation in the area of executive representation has been earned by our careful attention to each individual’s personal and professional goals, our deep knowledge of market practice and our commercial approach to negotiating. Our clients know that we “get the deal done.”
Working together with our Corporate Department, our attorneys assist the firm’s clients in solving a myriad of executive compensation and benefits issues that arise in connection with our firm’s robust transactional practice.
Tax-qualified retirement and pension plans present a minefield of complex tax and legal requirements for employers. Our attorneys are seasoned in navigating these issues, and provide clients with sophisticated legal advice on the design, operation and maintenance of a broad range of plans.
